Day 12 - Tues 27th May

Flagstaff, Az to Las Vegas, Nv

"Flagstaff, Arizona and don't forget Winona" (Again)

After missing breakfast at the Monte Vista Hotel, Flagstaff, we bumped into Pete & Lynda in the lobby. They had been up & about and saw Max (the car) in the car park. They also saw Arnie guarding it. Lynda remarked on how she thought that he was much bigger than what she imagined!

We said goodbye again and set off.

As we had departed from R66, "Main Street America" (as us R66 anoraks also call it), we had to drive back to where we had left it west of Gallup, Nm.

We decided to interstate it east to Winslow & R66 it west back to Flagstaff. Understand? Look at a map!

I was driving east on the interstate and we had an accident. Well, we didn't but the 20 wheeler truck next to us did!

I was overtaking the truck, about to pull alongside, when one of it's tyres blew. It exploded and threw large pieces of rubber at us. Luckily the truck didn't swerve at all. I swerved a little, then both us held steady, slowed down and pulled off at the next exit.

The driver, Paul Thompson, was very friendly and before anything else asked if we were OK.

We were, of course, so we went about exchanging insurance details etc. He phoned his company & I phoned the car rental company. At first we thought that there was no damage apart from black rubber marks on the front and side of Max.

 Then on closer inspection we realised that there were two small dents on the passenger door where the black rubber marks were.

The driver, Paul took lots of pictures and so did Boley. Paul's were for insurance purposes, Boley's were for the blog! All of this took about an hour and it was baking hot.

Boley heard Paul tell his boss that these were good guys (us) coz we were doing Route 66. 

The car rental company offered us a replacement car but we said that it wasn't necessary coz we liked Max, (even more so now that she's into rubber!)

We'd like to say a BIG thank you to Paul Thompson of Freshpoint Transportation. Obviously it was just one of those things, but Paul was very professional and helpful throughout.

 

Safe Trucking, Paul.

We carried on and Max performed with a new lease of life.

We arrived at Winslow, Arizona and sought out Kinsley & 2nd. Made famous by The Eagles/Jackson Browne song "Take It Easy".

So we took pics of me then Boley "Standin' on the corner in Winslow, Arizona".

We had already called in at one gift shop & bought some things. We wandered over to another and the lady in there, Sandra, was very much taken with Arnie. She takes photos of (almost) everyone who calls in and puts them on a large digital photo frame hung up from the ceiling.

So she took photos of us and we took photos of her! 

We then hit R66 back to Flagstaff and on to Seligman, Az.

There is a stretch of R66, starting east of Seligman, that is continuous original R66 for 159 miles. 

We stopped in Seligman at the Snow Cap Cafe, a R66 institution, for a brunch of hot dog & shake. 

The late Juan Delgadillo, owner of the Snow Cap, would play practical jokes on his customers. His son, continues in this tradition with squirting mustard, false door knobs and "slightly used" napkins amongst many other jokes and tricks. These are the toilets!!

The food was great too!

We continued on and in Kingman left R66 to branch off to Las Vegas, which is 100 miles away.

I've been to Vegas many times but Boley hasn't so we couldn't be so near & not spend  few days there.

We drove over the Hoover Dam and arrived in Vegas at 8 pm.

Drove down "the Strip" with Max's top off and checked into our hotel.

Went out, got something to eat and had a few beers in various bars 'til 2 am.

Mileage: 2678 

P.S. We forgot Winona!